New Study Reveals Canadian Consumer Shopping Habits

The results of the 2016BrandSpark Canadian Shopper Study are in. The winners for the Best New Product Award — as voted by Canadian consumers — are . . . numerous : check out the official press release for the entire list.

The annual survey has 39,000 participants and is viewed as the national profile of Canadian shopping habits for consumer packaged goods (CPGs). The results reveal important insights into the minds of Canadians.

In particular, the study found that:

Canadians are willing to pay up for innovative products: 67% of Canadians will pay a little more for products that appear to be improved.

Canadians have a love/hate relationship with shopping trips: About half enjoy the process of shopping at multiple stores for the best deals, while just under half would prefer to make fewer shopping trips.

They want organic products, but are often not willing to pay the premium price for them: Only 23% of Canadians regularly buy organic products, though 60% say they would buy them more often if they were less expensive. Similarly, only 33% of Canadians are willing to pay more for environmentally friendly products.

Brand loyalty is down, deal-hunting is on the rise: 45% of respondents report less brand loyalty than they had a few years ago. 75% of Canadians report using print flyers to find sales, while 40% use digital flyers.

Half of all Canadians believe that generic beauty brands are as effective as prestige brands: 50% of Canadians believe that ongoing R&D is leading to more effective products across all brands.